


Battle Plans

by Upsetapplecart



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Minimal spoliers for CP9 arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 11:24:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10098233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Upsetapplecart/pseuds/Upsetapplecart
Summary: Sometimes a 'thank you' is all you have.





	

“I’ll fight them next time.” 

“Fight who, Nami, my love?” Sanji asked, always happy to converse with his goddess. 

It was just the two of them in the kitchen aboard the Thousand Sunny. Sanji had taken the current lull in the whole ‘being pursued by marines’ thing to try and marinate some steak for the following evening. 

Nami was using the lull, clever beauty that she was, to catch up on her cartography. The fact that she had chosen to do it in the kitchen sent his heart into palpitations- he clutched his chest, smearing goo over his shirt- and made him want to write sonnets to her beauty. (But the steak had to be marinated first, so he put the sonnets on hold for the moment.)

Even with the library, her office, the aquarium, and even the ladies’ bedroom, she came to the kitchen to work! Just like on the Merry, when there hadn’t been as much room and things had been smaller. 

“The women. Next time there’s one, I’ll fight her, so you don’t have to. You don’t want to fight them, do you?” She was still ruling, tracing a complicated world down into slightly less complicated ink lines on her page. Taming the untameable.

Sanji pushed the flavour a little harder into the meat than he meant to, fingers jerking. The word ‘no’ was on the tip of his tongue, but saying it would be admitting to, not defeat, but something. 

“Like that dim bubble chick. Next time we swap, straight up. No questions.” There was a scratch as she finished a coastline. 

Sanji stared at the meat. The dips and curves of good steak. The dark stain and sprinkles of green that were the herbs he had rubbed in. 

Smoke spiralled and pen scratched. Nami seemed content to wait for his reply, whenever he chose to give it. 

Sanji could have spun. He could have babbled words of love and sung songs of worship as he spun on his well-trained legs. But all that, all the gestures he had, would feel hollow. Before what she had just offered, no gesture would compare. 

So, he went with what he was left with. Small and insufficient as it felt. 

“Thank you.” He said it to his hands, but he said it strong. 

Her shrug was audible. “No problem.” 

Silence descended, made up of those quiet everyday sounds that came from cooking and cartography, no less peaceful than before, if a little more weighted.  
Promises could do that. 

Time past, but not too much of it. 

“Could I get a refill on this coffee, Sanji-kun?” Nami asked, the cup held aloft. 

“Of course, Nami-swan~” 

And the Thousand Sunny sailed on.

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime after the CP9 arc. 
> 
> Cheers to my beta! You are a hero.


End file.
